Make Yourself at Home
by HappyTheDragon
Summary: Lucy is still depressed about her father's death but doesn't want to worry the others about it. Will Natsu be able to help her feel better? That is, if he figures out what's wrong first.
1. Chapter 1

"Y-you're standing too close." Lucy brought up her hands between her and Natsu, whom was currently scrutinizing her face with crossed arms.

"Are you sure everything's okay, Luce?" Natsu asked his blonde friend with a semi-worried look. Lucy replied with a stuttered yeah, trying to reassure her dragon-raised friend that she was fine. Natsu arched her then let out a sigh as he slumped back down on the couch. "Well, if you say so," he said. Seeing that Natsu would no longer pester her into admitting that something was indeed wrong, Lucy let out an internal sigh. There was just no way she could tell her best friend what was bothering her. Knowing his character, he would end up becoming too worried trying to help her and end up doing something catastrophic. Besides, Natsu had other, more important things to worry about.

"So," she stretched her arms behind her back, "are we going on a mission anytime soon?"

Natsu looked up at her. "Oh, that's what I came here for. Erza already picked a mission for the team. We're supposed to meet at the station in about an hour."

"Ah, okay!" She smiled. "Well, I have to start packing, so if you two will excuse me." She moved away from the couch and towards her wardrobe.

Happy, the blue feline that until now had been quietly sitting at the opposite end of the couch, Perked up and directed his attention to the blonde stellar mage. "Lucy, Lucy, bring me fish, okay?"

"Uh, yeah, sure." She answered moving her hand in a shoo-shoo manner towards him without looking behind her, still busy pulling clothes from her wardrobe. Content with her answer, Happy flew atop his partner's head and laid there as Natsu stood up from his spot on the couch. He made his way to the window and spoke back to his teammate, "well, see ya later."

Lucy turned around to wave goodbye to her teammate. "Oka-Hey! Use the door!" And with those final words, Natsu was gone. "Geez, they'll never learn," she said to herself. She closed the window behind him and sat on the edge of her bed. A melancholic look took over her face. The truth is, she was still bummed about her father. To think that after they had finally made up, she just had to go and disappear for seven years. She picked up a letter that had been lying on her desk. She had gone through every single letter her father had written to her during her absence and it made her wonder whether somewhere along the way she had failed her father as a daughter. After being lost in thought for a while longer she decided on taking a bath before meeting up with the team. She had the bath running and she sat down at her desk to add to her novel while the bath was filling, but she didn't feel up to writing at the moment and ended up falling asleep.

When she woke up, there was paper stuck to her face and it took her a while before her senses all woke up too. She looked out her window. It was getting pretty late. It finally hit her, "the mission!"She jumped out of her desk chair, grabbed her gate keys, her suitcase, the packed fish for Happy and ran out the door paying no attention to the water seeping out from under the bathroom door.


	2. Chapter 2

Lucy dragged her suitcase closely behind her. The mission was a bust. All they had to do was act as guards at a ball. Simple enough, but Fairy Tail always had to call attention to itself, even without meaning to. As expected, someone showed up to disrupt the ball, and Erza went overboard with her swords, Gray froze half of the guests and flashed the other half with his disappearing clothes trick, Natsu managed to burn half the place down, and Happy and Lucy watched in horror as the scene unfolded. It was no wonder when the client angrily refused to pay the team and demanded she be paid instead. Lucy would have felt sorry for the small, plumped woman, but she had grown to dislike after she had cursed at the name of Fairy Tail, called Lucy useless, and then told her she had stupid spirits for choosing such a clumsy master. Lucy admitted that she sometimes was of no help to the team, but she didn't need a stranger to point it out.

The stellar mage put her hand to her face and thought about the event, sighing, the rest of the team nonchalantly walking behind her. "What am I going to do about my rent?" She voiced aloud, throwing her arms up in an exaggerated motion.

"Don't worry about it; we'll get another mission to cover it." Gray replied, hands in pockets and shirt missing. Lucy turned to look at him.

"Gray, don't strip in public," she said in a monotone voice. The ice mage looked down surprised he hadn't noticed his lack of clothes. Erza punched him into the ground causing the others to flinch.

"I am heading over to the guild first to check up on things if any of you would like to join me," she said.

Lucy shook her head, "I think I'll go home first to freshen up." She waved goodbye to her teammates as they parted ways and headed home, oblivious of what was waiting to greet her.

As she approached her apartment building, she saw the landlady standing outside with her hands on her hips. "Lucy!" She screeched. Lucy froze on the spot.

"Y-yes?"

"I hope you have twice the amount of rent money to cover what you have done!" Lucy gave the odd woman a baffled look.

"What do- guah!" And before she could ask the woman what she meant, she was holding her by the leg and carrying her up the stairs. Lucy frantically waved her arms, "hey, what's going on?"

When they reached the door to Lucy's apartment the landlady set her down and Lucy noticed that the carpet was wet where she stood. The baffled look on her face was replaced with one of shock when water gushed past her boots as the landlady opened the door to reveal the contents of the apartment. It was flooded. Her bed, along with many of her other belongings, was casually floating on the water. _My stuff,_ she thought. The landlady spoke, "you seemed to have left the bath running out of carelessness. Sorry, child, but I can't let you stay here and I have no other room to offer you. You are going to have to look for another place to stay until we drain out all the water."

Lucy looked down at her feet gloomily, _oh great, another screw up. _"I understand," she quietly replied. Then she walked into the room.

The landlady called after her, "what are you doing, child?"

Lucy looked over her shoulder, "I'm going to salvage what I can."

"Che, don't bottle it up for too long, girly." The landlady whispered before leaving Lucy to her salvaging.

It was pretty bad. The water was up to her thighs and she had quite a struggle moving from one spot to another, gathering everything she could in a crate she had found floating by. She finally made it to her desk, frantic to cram as many of her books as she could into her crate, along with her story. She was glad to find that none of them had been permanently damaged, they just needed to be left to dry a bit. Once the crate was filled to the point where she could barely carry it, Lucy made her way out. She walked down the cobble stoned path, balancing the crate and dragging her suitcase along with difficulty. She looked back at her apartment one last time before letting out an elongated sigh. _I really __am an idiot._

It took her a while to reach the guild as she had to keep setting down the heavy crate. Finally reaching the guild doors, she set the crate down once more. She was about to push the door open when someone else beat her to it. Natsu and Gray walked out grinding their teeth with Happy flying over them as they spewed insults at each other. Lucy sighed, "those two never stop fighting." Happy took notice of the blond and flew over to greet her.

"Lucy!" Landing on her head, the blue exceed took notice of her belongings at her feet. "I thought you went home, so why are you still packed?" He inquired. The ice and fire mage paused their quarreling to turn their attention to the blond and feline.

"Yeah, Luce. Why _are_ you still packed?" Natsu asked.

"No," Gray started, "rather, why are you carrying more things than you came back with?" he finished pointing to the overflowing crate. A bit flustered, Lucy grabbed the hem of her skirt, which Gray and Natsu noted was decorated with wet spots.

"um, well..."

"Ahahaha! Lucy, you weirdo!" Natsu pointed at her utterly failing to contain his laughter.

Lucy blushed furiously, "sh-shut up!" she yelled. After helping her carry her stuff in, they had sat down at one of the guild tables so Lucy could tell them what had occurred. Lucy was drinking a strawberry milkshake (courtesy of Gray as means to cheer her up a bit). "It was an accident..." she breathed out as she took another sip of her shake.

Gray, who was sitting beside her with his elbow on the table and his head resting on his hand, asked, "so you have nowhere to stay, right now?" Lucy loosened her hand on the shake and softly shook her head. " If you want, you can stay at my place for a while. I really wouldn't mind." Gray said, a slight pink color tinging his cheeks. Lucy looked up and saw Juvia watching them from behind a pillar, glaring at her and muttering something about love rivalry. Lucy sweat dropped.

"I rather not," she said. Who knew what Juvia would do to her if she accepted the offer, not to mention, it wouldn't be very safe to stay at an exhibitionist's house. Gray was not helping the thought having stripped down to his boxers, completely oblivious to it. Lucy put up her fingers, "let's see, Levy is out of town, I don't want to burden Wendy and Charle, and Erza would probably kill me on the first night," she mentioned, recalling when the sleep-walking swords woman almost sliced her in half. She was lucky the others were present to stop the tragedy from happening. She ruffled her hair in frustration, trying to think of what to do. "I'm completely broke, so renting a hotel is out of the question, too." She looked at her belongings settled in the crate. Happy looked up at her from the fish he was happily enjoying.

"Lucy, why don't you stay with us?" Lucy looked at the cat then shifted her eyes over to the dragon-slayer sitting across from her. He had his arms crossed and brows arched, giving the appearance of thinking. He looked at her, then suddenly broke into a smile.

"Yeah, Luce. You can come stay with us. It'll be like when me and Happy stay over at your house. Lucy swayed back a bit.

"No way."

"Eh?" Natsu and Happy said in unison. Lucy crossed her arms.

"If I stay with you guys, I'm sure you'll use it as a way to justify when you break into my room and eat all my food," she retorted. Natsu and Happy looked to the side nervously.

"What gave you that idea?"

"A-aye." Gray stood up from his spot next to Lucy's.

"Well, I'm heading home. Lucy, let me know if you need anything, and you better not do anything stupid, flame brain." He pointed an accusing finger at Natsu.

"As if, ice prick," he replied, glaring back at Gray. With that, Gray left the guild, boxers and all. Natsu shortly returned his attention to the blond in front of him. "Lucy," he began in a serious voice, " if you don't stay at our house, you'll have to sleep out in the cold, dark streets." By this point, his voice was becoming darker and his face was twisting to look more demonic. "Then," he continued, knowing he now had Lucy's full attention, "a figure will appear from the shadows of an alley, coming closer an closer to defenseless you, until- GAH!" Lucy shrieked. Her writer's vivid imagination, along with Natsu's creepy and plausible scenario, was enough to convince her that Natsu and Happy's house was the best option she had right now.


	3. Chapter 3

The trio walked down the dirt path that led to Natsu's house. Happy was settled down on Lucy's shoulder, happily swinging his tail from side to side as he told Lucy of his latest antics to win over Charla's heart and defeat his rival Panther Lily. Lucy rolled her eyes at his ramblings and began wondering when the ecstatic, blue cat had become so attached to her. When they first met, all the blue cat did was tease and make fun of the blond, and all Lucy could do was call him 'stupid cat.' Now they were here, talking about Happy's love life like best of friends. She smiled at the thought.

Lucy continued listening to Happy's ramblings as she continued to walk one step behind Natsu, whom was carrying her crate of belongings with ease. This made her feel a bit angry. How dare he act as if carrying that crate was light work when Lucy struggled an eternity just carrying it out of her apartment. She let go of the thought when she almost ran into a sign bearing the words "Natsu and Happy's House." The arrow on it pointed out to the clearing in front of them where a small, old looking, cottage styled house sat in the middle of it, isolated from the rest of the town.

_Yup, this is it._ Lucy recalled the first time she had paid a visit to the place in attempt for revenge of Natsu and Happy's many break-ins to her poor little room. Thinking of the two, they had already let themselves in to their home. She warily followed after them, glancing up at the worn out beast skull hanging above the doorway. She felt a slight shiver. That thing still gave her the creeps.

She pulled herself and her luggage through the doorway, expecting to see the place in a bigger mess than when she had been here before, but to her surprise, it was pretty well kept. It was still untidy, but nothing close to revolting. Natsu took notice of the semi-surprised look on her face and waved a hand in front of her to break her trance. "Oh, yeah, I never really thanked you for cleaning up the place," he said rubbing the back of his head, "so, thanks!"

He gave her his signature grin and she looked at him with a hint of shock, "h-how did you kn-know?" Natsu blinked at her and crossed his arms.

"Are you underestimating my abilities as a Dragon Slayer?" He questioned. " I got your scent from when you started following us, but I though maybe you just wanted to hang out, or were lost or something." Of course. How could Lucy have forgotten that Natsu had a sense of smell ten times better than the average dog's. But there was a thought that bit at her more at the moment.

" Wait. You knew I was following you?" Natsu shook his head, a serious look still on his face. "Then why- never mind," she said letting out a sigh. She wanted to ask why, if he knew she was there, had it not occurred to him to look for her there instead of falling asleep in her home as she had found them, but decided against it as she was sure as he would probably say something along the lines of "I forgot." Instead she asked where in his little house should she station herself at. Natsu looked at his hammock, then over at the two couches in the center, tilting his head and scratching his chin.

" You can have the couch." he finally said pointing to the faded green couch.

"Why the smaller one?" she voiced, but when she turned to look at Natsu he was huddled in the corner with Happy, whispering much too loudly.

"Ne, Happy, did you hear that? Lucy's taking advantage of our hospitality."

"Aye, Lucy sure is greedy."

"Hey! I can hear you!" Lucy yelled at them. "Seriously, you two," she sighed. She looked at the couch, or her newly appointed bed, and set her suit case down next to it. She sat on the center of the couch and began to relax when a creak and a snap made her head jolt back up. Suddenly, the couch collapsed into itself, and Lucy sat in the middle of the now broken piece of furniture dumbfounded. She stayed there, motionless, as Happy and Natsu stared at her until the cat decided to break the silence.

"Lucy, you're too heavy~" he teased.

Lucy blushed and brashly stood up from the couch, yelling at the blue exceed, "shut up, cat!" She walked over to her suitcase, stiffly grabbed its handle, and began walking to random direction in the house. "I'm going to take a bath." Natsu called after her.

"The bath is outside." Lucy came back flushed and stormed out the back door. "What's with her?" Natsu asked.

"Maybe she's hungry." Happy answered.

* * *

Lucy sat in the warm water with her legs pulled up to her chest. This bathtub was unusually smaller compared to what she was used to, it was no wonder Natsu and Happy were always sneaking into her house to take baths. She could hear Natsu outside asking if the water was warm enough already. She quickly replied with a loud enough yes. She had never taken a bath like this before. This house did not have warm running water, so if you wanted a warm bath you had to get a fire going from outside to heat up the water. She felt bad that Natsu had kindly offered to do it for her, despite her having acted so rudely towards them a few minutes back. "This water feels nice," she thought. Her thoughts started drifting her away to memories of her childhood:

"Lucy-sama, please be careful!" One of the maids called after a little Lucy. She was walking fairly fast for her size with a small, glossy cake in her hands. She had a smile plastered on her face. She couldn't help showing her excitement. She had finally made her first successful cake, and she was going to present it to her father as a surprise. It was his birthday after all.

"Maybe he will praise this time," she said to herself, " it is his favorite, too." She sped up her pace when she reached the long hall that led to her father's study. Once coming to a halt in front of those big, cherry wood doors, she placed her tiny hand on one of the seemingly big, brass door handles and swallowed nervously before pulling down on it. She pushed the heavy door open and slid in, placing both hands underneath the cake again. She spotted her father, hunched over piles of paper at his desk. She walked over slowly, too scared to make too much of a sound. "Papa," she softly said. Her father didn't look up. She scooted closer to his desk. "Papa, I made you a cake." Her father continued hunched over his work. "I'll just put it right here, so you can eat it later." Little Lucy quietly set the small, glossy cake on the edge of the desk. Her father finally spoke.

"You shouldn't be wasting your time on useless things like this. Return to your studies immediately." Lucy twiddled her fingers.

"But I though that maybe-"

"Do not talk back to me!" He barked. Lucy looked at him with her eyes widened in fear.

She looked down at her feet, afraid to face her father, "yes, sorry."

The small girl now stood outside the big double doors, tears trailing down her porcelain cheeks without faltering. "Happy Birthday, Papa," she whispered.

Lucy's eyes shot back open. She was still sitting in the bathtub, the heat from the water rushing to her face. She reached for a towel to dry herself off. "It's time to get out before I turn into a prune." She heard Natsu's voice outside and turned her attention to it as she dressed.

"Lucy, are you okay? You've been in there for a long time."

Lucy dizzily replied, pulling on pair of blue shorts on, "yeah, I'm okay." She opened the door to show Natsu she was fine, but she only saw a fuzzy blur in front of her. Then everything turned black as she collapsed.

* * *

When she opened her eyes, Natsu and Happy were fanning her with little fans they had gotten from a festival they had gone to together. She stared up at them, still trying to take in the scene. "Ah, Natsu, she woke up!" Happy informed the dragon slayer.

Natsu leaned in over her to reassure Happy's statement and talked to the dizzy stellar mage a bit too loudly, "Lucy! Are you okay? You fainted." Now, not only were her eyelids feeling heavy, but her ears were ringing as well as she struggled to glance from Natsu to Happy, their worried faces looking down at her. She opened her mouth to comment that they were too close, but nothing as much as a breath came out. Natsu realized that she was trying to tell them something and leaned in a bit closer. _No, that's the opposite of what I wanted you to do,_ she thought as Natsu calmly asked, "what is it?" Lucy only looked up at him. "Can't talk?" he continued. Lucy softly shook her head The now less worried dragon slayer rubbed his chin in thought. "Hmm." He walked away from the hammock Lucy was stretched out on and made his way to the rickety dresser behind the couches. His sudden movement from when he left Lucy's side made the hammock sway only a bit, but that alone was enough to make Lucy turn green. Happy had quickly took notice as he had quickly informed Natsu of the funny face their sickly friend was making. In a matter of seconds, said dragon slayer had reappeared beside them holding a ragged, bound notebook and an array of colored pens. "Are you okay?" he asked. Lucy simply nodded. "Can you move?" Lucy moved her arm to assure her dragon-loving friend that she was perfectly capable of movement. "But you can't speak?" Lucy dropped her eyes as she nodded. She had tried to use her voice, but it was as if she had never had one. Natsu pursed his lips and handed Lucy the notebook and pens he was holding. "you can use these to write down anything you need to tell us." He grinned down at her as Lucy looked up at him as thanks for his thoughtfulness.

Lucy grabbed a blue pen and delicately opened to the first page, afraid it would tear at any moment. She was expecting a blank page to write on, but was instead greeted with a page filled of random scribbles and doodles of what she supposed were dragons and things related to Fairy Tail. Lucy smiled and turned the page. More doodles. She found herself internally giggling at a doodle of him standing on top of a knocked out Gray and Erza. Before she could flip to the next page, Natsu snatched the notebook out of her hands and quickly flipped through to a blank page. He handed back to her nervously and watched as she wrote her first sentence:

_I didn't know you drew._

Natsu whipped his head to the side, a light shade of red decorating his cheeks. "Th-that was along time ago. I don't do it anymore, it's for kids." _Is he blushing? _Lucy thought as she surveyed his reaction.

"I draw pictures, too!" Happy chimed in (obviously more admitting than Natsu), holding up a piece of parchment for Lucy to see. On it were drawings of different kinds of fish: grilled fish, roasted fish, flying fish, and Happy's favorite, raw fish. On the corner of the parchment, though, was a drawing of a cat that looked very much like Charla. _How cute,_ Lucy thought. She began writing again into Natsu's notebook, making sure it was legible enough for Natsu and Happy:

_Oh, I didn't know you were both such talented artists. Maybe you should do illustrations for my novel._

Natsu's face quickly lit up in excitement,"really? You'd let us do that?" Lucy looked up at him taken a back by his enthusiasm at her offer, then a cunning look took over her visage.

_Eh? Natsu, that offer was more towards Happy, besides, I thought you didn't draw anymore._

Natsu quickly realized he had given himself away and stood stiffly shocked at how easily Lucy had gotten him to admit his hobby. His mouth opened and closed before he could get any words out. "Sh-sh-shut up!" He yelled.

_But I'm not talking._

Lucy wrote. "Ah! Stop being a smart ass!" He pointed at her accusingly. As menacing as he tried to sound, it was hard to take an embarrassed Natsu seriously.

"Natsu is actually pretty shy," Happy stated curling the corners of his mouth. Lucy wrote:

_Eh? Is that so?_

"You two!" Natsu yelled, stomping his foot and turning redder. Happy and Lucy both put their hands (or in Happy's case, paws) up to mouths, trying to suppress on coming laughter as Natsu fell victim to their teasing remarks. Lucy felt mean for teasing her host like this, but it was so cute for someone like him to be acting so flustered. There was no way she could pass up an opportunity. Natsu continued to yell and pout, stomping his feet and fuming as Lucy and Happy continued their bantering. This, Lucy thought, was a million suns better than being alone in the cold, empty streets of Magnolia. Here, she was warm.


	4. Chapter 4

**Sorry for the long wait. Enjoy.**

* * *

"Lucy-sama, it looks a bit tight here. Would you like me to loosen it?"

"No, it's fine like this. Thank you, Tally-san." The short woman tailoring Lucy's dress looked up at her with a smile before curtsying and moved on to collect her scattered sewing materials. Lucy stood in her dressing room, surrounded by body length mirrors. A lachryma powered chandelier hung high on the ceiling lit the room well enough. Lucy glanced at the mirrors before her, taking in the details of the lovely jade colored dress she wore from every angle. Small, intricate, gold designs were woven into the corset and the skirt hung loosely over her hips, draping to her ankles to reveal her plain green heels. Her hair was pulled back into a bu and decorated with with small jade pearls.

_Such a waste._ She thought. She knew she would only wear it once, and not even to an occasion she liked in the least. A maid walked up behind her. "Lucy-sama, your suitor is here." Lucy turned to the maid with a forced smile on her face.

"Yes, I will be there in a minute."Lucy looked at her reflection one last time before following after the maid.

She dragged her feet behind her as she went, hoping something happen to interrupt her meeting with this new suitor. Once she had turned 15, her father began setting her up for dates with wealthy strangers. Lucy hated the idea, but hoped anyways that these men were not arrogant snobs and were actually charming young gentlemen. Much to her disappointment, they were nothing like the latter.

She pushed the oak door opened and slipped into the room where her suitor was waiting for her. She spotted him sitting seated in a chair by one of the grand windows in the room. She made her way over to him, examining his features as she got closer. Soft brown locks fell around his face, and his shimmering green eyes complimented his lightly tanned skin. She had to admit he was quite handsome. He stood up when he had spotted her and bowed before her, taking her hand and placing a kiss on it. " I am Elias Reinsworth, heir of the Reinsworth family."

"Lucy Heartfilia," she simply replied with a curtsy.

"Lovely name," he stated with a smile. A maid walked to the small round table where they had accommodated themselves and set a tea tray down before them, setting a saucer and cup in front of each of them then proceeding to quietly fill each with tea. She left the teapot in the center of the table along with a plate of cookies, then dismissed herself. After a moment of silence, they sparked up a conversation on literature, something Lucy very much enjoyed.

_He doesn't seem so bad, _she thought, until he brought up the subject of magic. "Do you use any particular kind of magic?" he questioned. Lucy looked up at him in thought. " Well, I'm actually a stellar mage." She smiled brightly at him.

"Hmm, you really are a fragile girl," he smiled at her mischievously. Lucy's smile fell. She already didn't like where this was going. "To have to hide behind abstract beings as they fight your fights for you. You are indeed princess material," he continued as he placed his head in his hands. At this point, Lucy had become irritated, and the smile she had worn seconds ago was replaced with a scowl. In one quick movement, she stood up and flicked her wrist in a way that the contents of her porcelain cup splashed out all over Elias. He looked up at her in utter shock as tea trickled down his face.

She raised her voice at him, "my spirits are not shields, neither are they objects! They are my friends and you have no right to refer to them in such a way!" She watched as Elias slowly stood up from his seat, his eyes reflecting the scowl on her face.

"I take it that this is where our dates end, then. It was a pleasure to meet you, princess." He bowed to her, the anger still eminent in his features. "Well then, if you'll excuse me, I have other matters to attend to." She watched him walk away until he disappeared from the room. She sat back down as everything was drowned out by the thumps of her heart. Another suitor chased away by one of her outbursts. Now she would have to sit and wait for another scolding from her father about how she should keep her mouth shut during such affairs. Would she be able to handle his disappointment this time? In a matter of seconds, the doors swung open and her father stormed in. "Lucy! What have told you about controlling that mouth of yours!"

Lucy's eyes snapped open and she put her hands over them to stop the threatening tears. Her inability to keep her thoughts to herself was another thing her father always had squabbles about. Another reason she could consider herself a horrible daughter. She felt the sunlight on her face as she put her arms back to her sides. "morning already." She felt a weight pressing down on her stomach, so she glanced down to see what it was. Happy was curled into a ball, comfortably sleeping on Lucy's stomach. "Well, at least he's warm," she said to herself. A snore caught her attention, and she smiled when she found the source. Natsu was sprawled out on the off-pink couch rather uncomfortably, letting out a snore every so often. Lucy looked around the cottage.

Nothing had changed from when she had last visited, save for a few new souvenirs and newer requests pinned to the wall next to her. She looked at the tree that had somehow managed to grow through the house. _How did that pot even get there?_ She wondered, referring to the clay pot that was somehow surrounding the trunk of the tree. Seeing that Happy wasn't going to wake up anytime soon, she settled back down and placed her hand on the cat's head. She giggled as he let out a soft purr. She turned her head to check on Natsu again and was startled when she found him peering an eye at her. "Sleep well?" he asked.

"Uh, yeah," she answered feeling her face heat up.

"Oh, your voice is back." He said.

She nodded her her head. _How long has he been awake? _She asked herself. "What about you? Did you sleep well?" she asked, watching him shift his position on the couch.

"Let's just say you're lucky I left you there," he replied with a yawn.

"S-sorry," she began, "I'll sleep on the couch this time." she assured him.

"Seriously Lucy, why didn't you bring your bed, instead of that," he pointed to her crate. "At least we would both be able to sleep comfortably." He pouted.

"Those things are important to me!" she fumed, pointing to her crate of possessions. "Besides, my bed was damaged by the water. Unless you can find a way to dry it without damaging it further, it's pretty much useless." she explained crossing her arms. Happy finally began to stir under her hand and both mages went silent as the blue cat yawned and rubbed his eyes. He looked up at Lucy, his eyes suddenly going wide as Lucy eyed him curiously. "Ah! Lucy ate Natsu, and now she's trying to eat me!" He shrieked.

"What!?" Lucy yelled, the hand she had on the cat's head tightening dangerously.

"I-it was a joke!" Happy sweat-dropped.

"Stupid cat!" Natsu only chuckled at the two, not daring to intervene lest the blond's rage be directed at him. The cat and the blond continued their quarrel (which Lucy had an advantage in, seeing that her grip on the cat wouldn't loosen) until the three's stomachs growled. They turned to look at each other, which Happy and Natsu took as an opportunity to reveal to Lucy that they had neglected to buy any food because they had planned to have breakfast at Lucy's place. With that, they decided to head to the guild for breakfast, Lucy's unsettling dream of the past forgotten.


	5. Chapter 5

**Again, thank you to those that patiently waited, and thank you to those that reviewed.**

* * *

Natsu pushed the guild doors open and immediately made a beeline for the bar. Lucy and Happy walked after him, saying their greetings to the guild members already there. At the bar Mira was having a conversation with Lisanna and Kana and would occasionally let out a laugh. "Good morning," Lucy greeted with her usual smile and a wave.

"Morning," they greeted back. Kana was perched on the bar counter, leaning on a barrel and a mug in hand. Lisanna was casually sitting on a stool with her arms stretched over the counter. Mira was cleaning mugs like usual, smiling brightly. Lucy took a seat next to them.

Natsu followed suit, slamming his hand down on the counter, "Mira, we want food! I'm starving!"

Mira smiled ever so sweetly at them, "and what would you like to eat?"

"Fish and eggs!"

"Meat and eggs!"

Natsu and Happy yelled over each other. "I-I'll just have some toast and orange juice, please." Lucy said timidly. Mira giggled and brought them their respective orders shortly. Lucy had just stuck a corner of her toast into her mouth and had started to nibble it when Natsu was already demanding for seconds. _How does he eat so fast?_ She thought as she began to drift away into her thoughts. _I wonder what papa would have said if he had gotten the chance to meet Natsu. He probably would have liked him once he got past the etiquette part._

Lucy was snapped out of her thoughts when she turned her eyes to find Natsu biting down on the other corner of the toast still hanging out of her mouth, staring back at her. Lucy's mouth dropped open, letting go of her corner of the toast. She looked at Natsu in utter shock. "W-what are y-you d-doing, Natsu?" she stuttered out, glad that the others were too lost in a conversation of their own to notice what had just occurred.

Natsu wasted no time stuffing the rest of the bread into his mouth once Lucy had let go of it and answered with a note of nonchalance."Well, I had been trying to get your attention, but you wouldn't listen, and you looked kind of stupid with a piece of bread just sticking out of your mouth, so I thought, why not?" Lucy felt her face heat up, and in the heat of the moment, she punched Natsu and rushed out of the guild without another word. "What was that about?" Natsu asked.

Happy, who had gone unnoticed for a while, piped up. "She liiikes you." Natsu arched an eyebrow at him then looked back at the guild doors in thought.

* * *

Lucy didn't stop walking until she reached the market place. She stopped and clenched her fists to her chest then let out a relaxed sigh. Natsu could be a real idiot sometimes. After glancing at her surroundings she came to the decision to go grocery shopping. considering she was already at the market, she might as well get it out of the way. Lucy began to move in between the stands, glancing from one to another, as she came to a decision of what to make for dinner and looking for the ingredients necessary. She suddenly came to a stop as she bumped into someone's back. Said person immediately turned around to see who had dared smack into them, only to find Lucy looking a bit dazed and disoriented.

"Ah, sorry," Lucy apologized. The man and the other two with him eyed her. Lucy felt a shiver go down her spine.

The one she had bumped into finally spoke up. "Hey, you're pretty cute."

"Hey Jin, isn't she one of those Fairy Tail wizards from the party?" one of his lackeys pointed out.

"Huh? Oh yeah, she is." Jin replied as he sneakily snaked his arms around Lucy from behind. She tensed as Jin continued. "That means you owe us for ruining our fun, Tell you what, entertain me and my friends and maybe I'll consider forgiving you." Doing the only thing she could think of, Lucy opened her mouth and dug her teeth into Jin's arm. Immediately, Jin howled in pain and released Lucy from his arms. Lucy quickly spun on her heel and reached for her keys, grabbing at nothing but air. She looked down at her hips where her keys usually hung as realization hit her. _Oh no, I left them at __Natsu's._

Looking back up at Jin, she froze as he pulled back his arm and balled up his hand into a fist. "You bitch, you'll pay for that!" As he brought his fist forward to strike her, Lucy covered her face with her arms and prepared for impact. But impact never came. She felt herself be pulled back from the waist, and when she became curious as to why she never felt pain, she peered over her arm. The fist had made impact with something, just not with her. Her eyes widened as she saw the hand that had caught her attacker's fist. She trailed her eyes up the arm connected to the hand that saved her until a familiar white scaled scarf came into her view. At this point, she already knew who her savior was, but she dared to venture further to find his face. Though his glaring gaze was not on her, she couldn't help tensing up in fear. His eyes were filled with such threatening anger as he looked at Jin.

"Oi, just what the hell do you think you're doing?" he spat, the words dripping off his tongue like venom,

"None of your damn business, dumb ass!" Jin yelled, completely oblivious to the rage eminating from Natsu.

"If it involves my precious nakama," Natsu's grip on Lucy tightened, "then it is my damn business!' Without warning, he gave Jin a fitting farewell as he lit his fist on fire and hurtled it into Jin's face, sending him flying back into his friends. The three of them tumbled over with pained grunts. The two who had not suffered the same fate as Jin picked up their friend and fled the scene.

With a 'hmph,' Natsu softened his eyes and turned to the girl still encased in his arm. "Are you okay, Lucy?" Lucy, who was still too stunned to speak, only nodded her head in response. Natsu tightened the unmoving grip around her waist. "Happy was really worried about you, you know." He said. When he saw Lucy wasn't going to say anything, he continued. "you've been acting really weird lately, weirder than usual. Is everything okay?"

"Yes." Lucy squeaked out. She looked down at her feet. "S-sorry, for worrying you, I mean."

Natsu let go of her with a sigh. "If you say so." Then he grabbed her wrist and pulled her along.

"W-what are you-"

"You came here to buy groceries, right? So, come on!" He said with a smile. Lucy smiled back and stepped into pace with him as they wandered the market, hand in hand.


	6. Chapter 6

**Enjoy.**

* * *

When they entered Natsu's house house, they were greeted by a flying fur-ball smacking into Lucy's chest. "Lushi!" he bawled. " Where were you? I thought you ran away and Natsu was crying because he though we had done something to make you hate us!"

"I was not crying!" Natsu defended as he set the groceries down on the kitchen table. Lucy giggled then kissed Happy in between the ears.

"Sorry I made you worry," she said to him comfortingly. Seeing that he was still clinging on to her, his head still buried in her chest, she asked him, "Hey Happy, want to help me make dinner?"

Happy sprung into the air and answered cheerily. "Let's make fish!"

Lucy laughed and followed the now ecstatic exceed into the kitchen, where they spent the next hour fighting over how much of each ingredient to put in. Natsu slipped out of the house when Happy and Lucy were too busy fighting over how high to put the flames on the stove to notice him and didn't return until dinner was served.

* * *

"Ah, that was good." Natsu breathed out as he rubbed his now happy stomach. The plate before him had been licked clean.

"You should thank me," Happy piped up, "if it wasn't for me Lucy would have burned it." Lucy snapped her head up to glare at him.

"What? You were the one that almost poured the whole bottle of salt in there." She defended. Happy stared at her a few seconds more before letting out crocodile tears. "Natsu, Lucy's picking on me~" Fuming after having her cooking insulted by the blue cat, Lucy picked up the plates and pots off the table and walked over to the sink to wash the pile of dishes.

"Oh yeah, I have a surprise for you." Natsu spoke as he watched Lucy's back. She stopped scrubbing the pan she was working on and looked over her shoulder to direct her attention at Natsu.

"What is it?" she asked curiously. Natsu pushed back his chair and stood up. He walked over to the door, pulled it open, and smiled at Lucy before walking out. Lucy only became more curious. Natsu came back a minute later dragging along something behind him. A mattress. A very familiar looking mattress. Lucy dropped her jaw. "N-Natsu, is that mine?" she asked as Natsu continued to beam at her, pushing the mattress down behind the broken couch.

"I used my fire to dry it. It left some scorch marks, but other than that, it's perfectly fine now." He waited for Lucy to say something, a thanks or a simple praise, but she only continued to stare dumbfounded. "I brought your blankets, too, but I didn't want to burn them so I hung them up to dry instead. They should be ready by night time."

Lucy finally composed herself enough to speak. "Natsu, why?"

Natsu looked at her seriously before he began explaining. "Well, the couch was really uncomfortable to sleep in, but I don't want you to have to sleep on it while I'm all nice and cozy on the hammock. You're my guest after all. You should be comfortable." Lucy blushed a bit at his thoughtfulness. "But, I didn't want to sleep on the couch again, so I brought your bed for me to sleep in." he finished with his signature grin. Lucy's face dropped and she narrowed her eyes at him.

"Ah, so that's what you were after." Lucy said in a flat tone. Natsu laughed nervously.

"It's only fair. Since you're sleeping in our bed, we should get to sleep in yours." Happy reasoned.

"Whatever," she sighed. "I'm going to take a bath," she announced making her way toward the back door.

"You want me to come with you in case you faint again?" Natsu offered, completely oblivious to the inappropriateness of the question. Lucy shot a glare at him over her shoulder. He waved his hands in front of himself nervously. "I was kidding," he choked out to the blond, letting out a sigh of relief when she walked out without another word.

* * *

Natsu and Happy had spent the rest of the evening out in the stream, training and fishing. When they came back home, they found Lucy curled up in the hammock, fast asleep, with a book clutched to her chest.

After Lucy had finished her bath, she collected her bed covers, which were very much dry by then, and made the bed before Natsu came back. She made herself a cup of tea to warm herself up then pulled a book out from her crate and made herself comfortable in the hammock. She read a few chapters before fatigue took over, and she fell asleep holding the book close to her, waiting for her companions to come back home.

Happy watched her a bit before bidding good night to her, though he didn't expect a reply, and flopped down on the mattress to turn in for the night. Natsu made his way over to Lucy and pulled the book out of her grasp as gently as possible. He placed it back in her crate, careful not to damage it. He spotted the blanket balled up at her feet and threw it over her without a second thought. He examined her features before brushing a stray lock out of her eyes. Her hair was still lightly humid from the bath. _She looks really cute like this._ He smiled at the thought then turned on his heel and made his way to crawl into bed with Happy and drift into sleep.

Natsu awoke to the sound of a sudden thud followed by footsteps. He peered out from under the covers just in time to see a pair of slim legs pass by. "Lucy?" He pulled the covers off himself and sat up. "What are you doing?" He asked in a whisper, careful not to wake Happy. She didn't answer. She kept walking until she crashed into the wall, stumbled backwards, and resumed walking back into the wall. Worried that his friend would end up with brain damage, Natsu quickly got out of bed and approached her from behind. Putting his hand on her shoulder, he gently turned her around. Sure enough, her eyes were half lidded with a foggy look. Just as Natsu had assumed, she wasn't conscious of what she was doing. She was sleep walking. _And here I thought Erza was the only one._ He felt her go limp under his grasp and quickly scooped her up before she hit the floor.

He laid her back in the hammock before making his way back into bed. He let out a yawn and closed his eyes in an attempt to find sleep again. Unfortunately, a few minutes later, another thud resounded through the small room, and as he pried his eyes opened, the same pair of legs that woke him up minutes ago passed him by once again.

Irritated with the thought that if he didn't do something about his friends condition he wouldn't get any sleep, he crawled out of bed for the second time that night. He walked up behind Lucy and wrapped his arms around the sleep-walking girl. He dragged her over to the mattress and tucked her underneath the covers, following after with irritation still etched on his face. He noticed Lucy was attempting to get up again, so he wrapped his arms around her tightly until she relaxed. He was about to let out a relieved sigh when he heard her mumble in her sleep, "father, I'm sorry." Natsu's irritated face softened into one of concern and understanding as the girl's words sunk in.

"So that's it, huh? You should have said something, idiot."He whispered as he watched her sleeping face relax. He gently stroked her blond locks and took in her scent until, he too, drifted off into sleep.


	7. Chapter 7

It was morning. The soft rays of sunlight crept their way into the cozy cottage. The birds could be heard chirping and chattering away outside. This, however, was not what had jolted a certain dragon slayer awake, no, not at all. Rather, he was woken up by a rather crude shriek and found himself falling out of the comfort of the bed rather ungracefully.

He sat up and looked back at the cause of his unpleasant awakening. A brown eyed blond sat in the middle of the bed, staring back at him. A deep shade of red colored her face. "What-wha-wha?" she stuttered out, pointing a shaky finger at the boy rubbing his head and staring back at her with irritated eyes.

"Lucy. What the hell?" He said, oddly calm about the situation. "That's not a very nice way to wake up your host, especially after you kept me up all night." He crawled back onto the mattress.

"Aye," Happy added, yawning and rubbing his eyes rather drowsily.

"Wha-what are you talking about?" Lucy questioned, confusion lacing her words. Natsu tossed his head to the side.

"You don't remember? Then you really were sleep walking, huh?" He crossed his arms and looked up pensively.

"Sleep walking!? I was sleep walking!? No way! I don't sleep walk!" Lucy protested, copying Natsu's actions and crossing her arms over her chest. She furrowed her eyebrows and puffed out her cheeks as Natsu turned to look at her.

"You do. Well, you did last night anyway. You were mumbling, too." Lucy became flustered, no longer interested in defending herself, rather wanting to know if she had said anything strange the others shouldn't know about.

"I talked? What did I say? You better not tell anyone." She flailed her arms around in front of him. Natsu ignored her and occupied himself with wrapping his signature white scaled scarf around his neck.

"That's not important right now. What is, is …"Natsu looked down at his feet, his hand placed over his mouth. _Should I ask her? Knowing Lucy, she'd…_ There was a long silence as he thought. Lucy became worried at his sudden lack of words and scooted closer to him.

"Natsu?" she called to him, trying to pull him out of his daze. He whipped his head around to look at her. Unluckily for him, the sudden close proximity between the two caught him off guard. He attempted to stand quickly to widen the space between them, but failed miserably and ended up in a heap on the floor. Lucy lifted a questioning eyebrow at his sudden odd behavior. "Natsu, is something wrong?"

He shook his head in response. _ I should be the one asking you that._ He stood and looked down at her seriously.

"What?" she asked. When he made a face like that, Lucy was never sure if he was going to say something really serious or something really stupid. Without warning, he grabbed her hand and dragged her out of the bed.

"Come on. Let's go to the guild." Lucy stumbled over her feet trying to keep up with him.

"Hey, wait! I'm not even dressed yet!" She managed to get out, a bit too loudly. Natsu stopped in his tracks and let go of her hand.

"Oh, right." He turned to grin at her and put his hand behind his head. "I'll just wait for you outside then." He walked out after telling her that and closed the door behind him. Lucy looked at the closed door a few second longer then tilted her head.

"What's wrong with him?" Happy only grinned knowingly from his spot on the bed.

* * *

"You guys slept together!?"

"Mira, don't yell it out like that. You'll give people the wrong idea." Lucy waved her hands at the bar maid trying to calm her down, but she was a lost cause. Natsu had his ears covered after his eardrums almost burst from Mira's excitement.

"But still, it's pretty bold of you two." Natsu looked at the bar maid curiously. Lucy laughed nervously.

"Mira, you totally missed the point." Lucy came to the usually helpful, white haired beauty to ask for advice over her sudden tendency to sleep walk. All was going well, but when Lucy mentioned how Natsu had gotten her to stop getting up, the bar maid stopped listening and went off into her own imagination.

"Damn it, old man! Give me back my booze!" The three mages at the bar looked up in the direction of the outburst. There, they saw Cana angrily jumping up and down with her hands grabbing at he air above her. Gildarts stood in front of her with a barrel over his head.

"No way! It's too early for you to be drinking. Have you even eaten yet?" Gildarts retorted. Cana fumed and continued to chase after her childish father. The rest of the guild burst into laughter at the scene.

"Those two have been like that since we came back from tenroujima." Mira stated with a giggle. Lucy felt a sudden sense of envy, and then she scolded herself for having such thoughts. Mira took notice of her sudden change in mood and became worried for the usually cheerful blond. "Lucy, are you alright?"

Said blond jolted in her seat. "Huh? Oh, Yes." She forced out a smile. "Just a bit stuffy," she said tugging at the collar of her shirt. "I'm going to step outside just for a bit." She pointed at the guild's doors, stood up from her stool, and stalked off. Mira let out a sigh.

"Seriously, that girl needs to stop keeping everything to herself." Next, Natsu stood up and exited the guild without a word. "Natsu, wait!" Mira called after him, but he paid her no attention. Happy and Charle landed on the bar counter in front of Mira.

"Don't worry. If anyone can cheer up Lucy, it's Natsu." Happy chimed.

"No, it's not that." Mira started. "It's just…" she paused, looking down at her hands, "…Natsu forgot to pay for his meal." She finished with a straight face, pointing at an abandoned stack of plates on the bar where Natsu had been sitting. Happy's jaw dropped and Charle rolled her eyes. Sometimes, Mira really knew how to kill a moment.


	8. Chapter 8

**I'm so sorry it took me an eternity to update. Please don't kill me. Have this chapter as reconciliation. Okay. Enjoy, please.**

The rays of the sun were pouring down over the city of Magnolia. It was a beautiful scene, but it did not match what Lucy was feeling. Said blond sat on an abandoned barrel outside of the guild. She swung her legs back and forth without a care. A cheerful tune turned melancholic slipped from her lips as she hummed along to the light breeze. Her gaze was on the sky high above and an awfully forced smile was plastered on her face. She paid no attention to the hot tears rolling down her cheeks and slipping away to become lost in the fabric of her clothes. Whether she was unaware of the cascade of tears or if she had simply chosen to ignore them was unknown. She could feel a knot in her throat but she continued to hum nonetheless. She refused to break down here. She feared to let her comrades, her friends, to find her like this. Why she stayed so close to the guild despite what she felt instead of returning home where she ran less risk of being found in this state, she didn't know. Perhaps, somewhere in the recesses of her mind she hoped that someone would find her like this. Perhaps, this was her silent scream for help. Nevertheless, she kept her quivering lips in a smile.

"Lucy." She jolted at the sound of her name. She quickly slid her arm across her face and wiped away the tears she suddenly became aware of. She looked up at the person who called out to her with a prominent smile.

"N-Natsu!" She waved at him. "Hey. It's a really nice day today, isn't it?" Natsu only looked at her, his face serious. The blonde turned away from him and continued her rant. "We should do something, like maybe go fishing, or there's this new café I've really been wanting to go to and-"

"Stop it!" Lucy's mouth clamped shut at Natsu's outburst. She looked at the dragon slayer in utter shock. His fists were balled up and his body shook. Lucy was seized with a sort of terror, afraid of what Natsu would do next. Was he mad at her? She couldn't remember having done something that could have upset him. She reached a hand towards him, but stopped when he spoke again.

"Why?" Lucy looked at him baffled. "Why won't you just tell me what's wrong?" She dared a put on a shaky smile.

"Natsu? What are you talking about?" She asked, trying to sound oblivious and cheery. Natsu grabbed her shoulders and forced her to look at him.

"This." He said rather forcefully. "This is what I'm talking about. Why can't you just tell me what's bothering you? I know it's not nothing. " Lucy looked up at him. The smile she had tried so hard to keep on display had been replaced with a melancholic frown. As she looked into Natsu's eyes she saw the anger that had been there moments before had melted away and left only sadness and hurt. Was this what keeping to herself was doing? Hurting her friends? No, that's not what she wanted. She kept to herself because she wanted to spare them the sorrow. "Lucy, it hurts to see you so…so… not Lucy." He let go of her shoulders and looked down at his feet.

"I… I'm sorry… I just… I didn't," Lucy choked on her words, unsure of what to say. Natsu looked up at his dear friend. It pained him to see her like this. It pained him more to know he couldn't help her like he wanted to when she was being so stubborn. Lucy had stopped trying to form words and instead let out choked sobs. Natsu looked at her. Her face was covered in overflowing tears and her cheeks were red. She looked tired and disheveled. Why had it taken him this long to notice? He brought his hand behind his head and looked off to the side.

"You don't have to bottle it up, you know, but if you're not going to tell me anything then I guess I have no choice but to take you to someone you will talk to." Lucy looked up at him through tears.

"what?" Before she had time to process anything she was thrown over Natsu's shoulder. She flailed a bit and struggled in his grasp trying to figure out what was going on, but Natsu kept a tight hold on her. When she prodded and asked he remained silent. In a few minutes of silence they heard Happy's voice off in the distance looking for them. When the blue cat had found them Natsu simply waved him off.

"We're going out for a bit. Don't wait up. Stay at Wendy's if you like." The blue exceed quirked an eyebrow at the dragon slayer but nodded his head nonetheless and left the two alone without complaint.

It felt like hours had passed and Lucy had been tired of hanging upside down, but she had long ceased her struggles. She was still curious of where it was Natsu was going, but she didn't ask. He had been silent the whole time. She didn't mind the silence much though, it was actually rather comfortable. Even if Natsu did try talking to her, he would end up having a one man conversation. She felt Natsu come to a stop. Curious to know where they were, she pushed herself up on Natsu's back and craned her neck to look over his shoulder. She caught glimpse of a sign over a small town. She squinted to read the letters on the sign. "Acalypha."

She immediately tensed. She failed to notice that Natsu had started to move again. Her lips quivered. "Natsu. You can't. This is." She felt a shiver go through her whole being. Natsu seemed to ignore her until he came to a complete stop. This time he put Lucy back on the ground. She turned to look at him a bit shaken. He managed to give her a weak smile. She turned to look at her surroundings. Her breathing came out uneven. She was unsure of what to do. She wanted to run away and hide, but something kept her where she was. Finally, she braved looking down at what laid before her feet. She dropped to her knees and tears fell freely from her eyes once again, but these just seemed more sincere.

She reached her hand towards the tombstones in front of her and traced her hand over the inscriptions. "Jude Heartfilia. Layla Heartfilia." She drew her hand back and clutched it to her chest. She shook. "Papa. Mama." Her lips quivered as sobs escaped through them. Then finally, the tight knot she felt in her chest loosened as she let out a cry. Rain began to fall from the sky and soon everything became covered in tears. Lucy clutched to her father's tombstone. "Waugh! *sniff* papa, papa, I'm sorry…hic…you were by yourself for so long. Weren't you?... hic *sob* I'm sorry."

Natsu stood over her. He didn't mind the rain much. He looked up at the gray sky then back down at his companion. _Even the sky cries when you're sad, Lucy. _He smiled warmly at her. He would stay by her side as long as he had to. He watched with caring eyes as his companion cried out everything she had kept locked up for so long.

"I love you, too, papa." Lucy wiped at her eyes, though the rain kept her face wet. "I'm sorry I wasn't there, but I love you." Then she turned to Layla's tomb. "and mama, too. I'm your daughter, and I won't forget that, so don't forget me either." She turned to look up at Natsu. "Thank you." Natsu smiled down at her then kneeled down next to her. He wrapped an arm around her then turned his attention to the tombs before them.

"I'll take care of Lucy even after my last breath, so don't worry about that." He reached a hand into his pocket and pulled out a cloth. He unraveled it to reveal the Fairy Tail insignia and laid it in between the tombs. Lucy watched curiously. "I know how much you cared for Lucy and how important she was to you, so take this as proof that Lucy is important to me, too."

Lucy smiled at the gesture. "Thank you, Natsu. I know my parents appreciate it. I appreciate it, too." She looked down at her lap. Her fingers were dirtied with mud. "I'm sorry, too." Natsu looked at her. He patted her head.

"Hmm. Don't worry about it. I'm not mad that you didn't want to talk about it, just sad that you wouldn't tell me something was wrong. I mean, if you want to cry it's okay to do so." He helped her up. "If you want to talk about it, just let me know and I'll drag you here." Lucy laughed. The rain began to lighten up.

"Today is a nice day. Don't you think?" She asked Natsu. He nodded in agreement then unconsciously intertwined his hand in hers. Together, they made their way back to Magnolia through the rain. Behind them, two ghostly figures watched them with their hands intertwined, too. One of them spoke, "we had nothing to worry about." They both smiled then vanished.

**So, this chapter was a bit heavier than the prior ones. Sorry, it had to get a little emotional at some point. One Chapter left to go, so bear with me.**


	9. Chapter 9

**At last, the last chapter of my first fanfiction. Thank you to all those that reviewed, followed, and favorited. Please enjoy.**

The backdrop of the town of Magnolia was graced with lovely specks of silver on a fabric of the deepest blue. Two figures were seen walking down the empty streets lit only by the faint glow of the occasional street lamps and the silver light pouring from the night sky. Natsu tugged at his scarf every now and then casting a nervous glance at Lucy who at the moment was busy balancing herself on the bricks bordering the river.

"Hey, careful not to fall in." He warned. She looked at him skeptically.

"Don't worry. I won't" She told him.

"Seriously," he continued, keeping his eyes locked on her figure, "if you fall in I'm not going to help you." Lucy looked at him, her brows furrowed and her eyes set in a playful glare.

"Have a little more faith in me, I'm not going to fall in. I'll be fine." She assured him turning her eyes forward. Her feet fell one in front of the other, but not even a second after she had finished her statement did she manage to take a false step. She lost her footing and felt herself start falling of the bricks and towards the cold river water. It came as such a surprise that not even a yelp escaped her.

"Lucy!" She readied herself to be immersed in water when she felt Natsu's hand wrap around her wrist. He pulled her back upright and into his arms. She looked up at him with widened eyes. "See?" He scolded. "I told you you would fall in." Lucy's gaze softened and she smiled up at him.

"But I didn't." Natsu looked like he was about to reiterate against her witty statement, but she stopped him. "Because you were here I didn't fall in, so thanks for being here." Natsu blushed and let go of her.

"W-well I g-guess you just g-got lucky." Free from his grasp, she took hold of Natsu's scarf and pulled on it.

"Yeah-yeah, now come on, let's go to the guild. Happy is probably waiting." She said, giving his scarf another tug. Natsu composed himself again.

"Right." Lucy skipped forward then took off in a sprint. "Hey!" Natsu called after her. She took a quick glance back.

"I'll race you there!" she called ecstatically over her shoulder. Natsu smiled and took off after her.

"All right, but don't expect me to go easy on you." He taunted. Lucy laughed.

* * *

"We're back!" Natsu announced to those in the guild. A ball of blue fur smacked into his face.

"Natsu!" it cried.

"Happy!"

"Don't ever leave me behind again." Happy sniffed. Natsu patted his head.

"Yeah, sorry." Lucy smiled at the scene. Mira approached her from behind and tapped her shoulder. The bar maid waved kindly at the blond when she turned.

"Mira? What is it?" she asked with a genuine smile. Mira held out a white envelope for the blond before her.

"Your landlord came and left this for you. She said it was important." Mira explained. Lucy looked at the envelope curiously. She grasped her fingers around it and looked at the front. The word "notice" was written in black ink. She smiled with excitement as she pulled out the content, already knowing what it was.

* * *

Natsu stood over the stellar mage as she organized her things into the crate she brought with her. "So, this is the last night you're spending here?" He asked. Lucy shook her head as she continued to pack.

"Yup, the landlady said I could go back tomorrow." Happy landed on her head.

"Lucy, we're going to miss having you here." The cat stated sadly. She looked up at him.

"Eh? Why are you sad? It's not like I'm going far away. Besides, you guys always end up crashing at my place, so it won't be that different." She reasoned with them. Natsu shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other, unmoving from his spot behind the pair.

"Yeah, but this is different." Happy said.

"How so?" Lucy asked. Happy looked back at Natsu who seemed to be deep in thought then settled back into Lucy's hair.

"Never mind," he said. Lucy stood up from her spot on the floor.

"There. Done." She turned to Natsu. "And you have to remember to take my mattress back tomorrow." She told him, pointing at the mattress lying on the floor. Natsu looked at her a bit confused then scratched the back of his head.

"Oh sorry, forgot that was yours." Lucy eyed him suspiciously.

"Right, anyway, I'm going to sleep. I'll let you have the mattress just for tonight." She announced climbing into the hammock. She sunk her head into a pillow and pulled a blanket over herself.

"Hey, Lucy?"

"Yeah?"

"About your dad," he looked down at the floor, a soft smile on his face, "I'm sure he never once stopped loving you." Lucy smiled to herself, pulling the blanket closer.

"Yeah."

"Goodnight," he said.

"Good night," she said.

That night, Natsu was pleased to find that Lucy had no episodes of sleep walking nor anything unlike Lucy. At some point during the night, though, he found himself wishing she would slip out of the hammock, because she was cold or some silly excuse like that, and crawl under the covers next to him to steal some his warmth. He really wouldn't mind it. He smiled at such a silly thought and pulled the covers higher in attempt to get some rest.

* * *

It had been a week since Lucy was able to move back into her own room. She sat at her new desk writing a new addition to her novel. If anything, the flood had provided her with an excuse to buy new furniture. Her old furniture was becoming, well, old. She liked her new furniture set, it brightened up the room more and her new book shelf was twice as big. The only thing she had kept the same was the bed. If she changed that she was sure to get a complaint from a certain someone. Speaking of which, no one had yet dropped into her newly arranged room, not even Natsu and Happy.

As soon as that thought crossed her mind, she heard a knock on her window. She moved from her desk to the front of her window. Sure enough, there was Natsu accompanied by Happy. She didn't even bat an eyelash when Natsu waved at her. The one thing that really bothered her was the panicked look on Natsu's face. She opened the window and both boy and cat tumbled in.

"Lucy, thank goodness you're here." Natsu clutched to her side while Happy clutched to the other. "We need to stay here for a few days." They said flatly.

"Eh? Why? Did something happen?" She asked with concern. Natsu sat on the edge of her bed and allowed for Happy to explain.

"Well, you see," the blue cat began the explanation squeakily, "there was a really big bug in our room and Natsu tried to get rid of it, but he accidentally burned down part of the room, so now me and Natsu don't really have much of home." He finished unsure of whether to laugh or cry. Lucy's eye twitched.

"Y-you two…" she said in disbelief. Natsu smiled sheepish at her.

"So we'll just be staying here for a few days, until we fix our house." He said plainly. Lucy sighed.

"Well, not much I can do, except say…" she moved her arms behind her back and smiled warmly at two, "make yourself at home."

_End._

**And so this story ends here. Thank you for sticking with me 'til the end. Thanks for the support thus far. Now I will shamelessly ask that you continue to support me in oncoming stories. Thank you. Over and out.**_  
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